Saturday of Book Reviewing – The Mermaid’s Daughter

Serendipitously coinciding with Pride Month, I read, and am now reviewing, a novel with lesbians! And mermaids. Obviously.

Written by Ann Claycomb in March of this year, The Mermaid’s Daughter follows Kathleen, a descendant of the woman who inspired Hans Christian Andersen’s Little Mermaid. Of course, as we find out in italicized chunks at a time, Anderson gets a fair bit right and fair bit wrong. It’s a pretty quick read, not really intended to call forth deep meaningful thoughts or introspection. I enjoyed it for what it was, although given that it’s outside my usual wheelhouse, not as much as I love my typical science fiction fare. I kept hoping for a little more… technologically driven chaos? Something.
It wasn’t bland per say, but I thought it leaned a little too heavily on certain themes and not enough on rich, character development. I wrote on Goodreads:

“Hmm perhaps I’m biased by outside influences, but I thought this novel was a fast read with little reread value. That may not be important to others, but as a collector of books, I always hope to eventually revisit beloved places only accessible by words. And this place? Was kind of predictable and filled with characters I either didn’t know enough about to care for or knew just enough about to mildly dislike. As for the ending? I won’t spoil it, but given the darker themes attempted early on in the novel and the lack of successful relationships for lesbians in media nowadays, can’t you guess just as easily as I did where this is going?”

Yeah. So there’s that. Honestly you want to ring in Pride Month right? There’s really only one thing media wise to do: WATCH ORPHAN BLACK. I love love love this show. And if you don’t know why I so heavily recommend it? Think clones and social issue awareness and loyalty and murrrrrder. Tatiana Maslany plays a dozen characters all with their own mannerisms, accents, and histories. It’s beyond compare. And this is the last season: Episode 1 of Season Five drops today, people!
OK. So this review got derailed. I may or may not be utterly thrilled and eager to watch Orphan Black and all else has been pushed to the side in my mind. Sorry? (Not really.)